China is seeking to put further limits on smartphone use amongst under 18 year olds.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has proposed draft rules that
- would cap the phone time of children aged 16 and 17 to a maximum of two hours per day
- for kids between 8 and 15 the limit would be one hour per day
- under 8s would have 40 minutes
- would also ban any use between 10PM and 6AM
Phones would need to have an easy-to-access mode that lets parents restrict what kids see and permit internet providers to show age-appropriate content. Children under three would be limited to songs and other forms of audio, while those 12 and up can see educational and news material. There would be exceptions for regulated educational content and emergency services.
The CAC said the rules had been drafted to “improve the positive role of the internet, create a favourable network environment, prevent and intervene in minors’ internet addiction problems, and guide minors to form good internet use habits”.
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Go outside and play.